X – COLONIZATION OF THEBES BY THE PHOENICIANS

X – COLONIZATION OF THEBES BY THE PHOENICIANS

The city Thebes is located in Boeotia, southeast of Lake Kefis, on the river Ismena. The word “Thebes”, meaning “boat”, is of unknown origin, probably paleo-Balkan or Egyptian. Archaeologists have determined that the “Kadmeia” acropolis in Thebes was constructed around 1320 BC, or before 1313 BC, which corresponds with the “Eratostenovan” chronology.

According to mythological data provided by Pausanias (Pauzania, Periigissis tis Ellados, IX, 5 (prev. Guide Hellada), Logos, Split, 1989), Thebes was first settled by the “Ekteni” whose king was Ogig (native). The Ekteni died off from an illness and Thebes was re-settled by the “Hianti” and by the “Aoni” who were Boeotian people. When the Phoenician army approached Thebes, the Hianti fled during the night. The Aoniti who chose to remain asked Cadmus, the Phoenician leader, to take mercy on them and so he did and allowed the Aoniti to live among the Phoenicians. While the Aoniti lived in the villages, Cadmus built a city for the Phoenicians and called it Kadmeia. When the city grew, the Kadmeia Acropolis became lower Thebes. At the same time, the Phoenicians occupied the islands Rhodes, Crete and Eubeia where they built the cities Halkis (copper) and Eretra. Later, around 800 BC, Cadmus colonized the Halkidiki peninsula in Macedonia and renamed it Cadmia. He also colonized the western coast of the Thermaic Gulf. In addition to living in Balkan colonies, the Phoenicians had colonies in today’s Lebanon by the sea, along the Mediterranean Sea coast and along the Adriatic Sea, all the way from Spain to North Africa. Their most powerful city was Carthage in Africa. The Phoenicians can be described as being the first “global capitalists” of the then known world who controlled Mediterranean trade for almost 1000 years, until Alexander the Great conquered it in 332 BC. The Phoenician Colonization is interwoven into the myth of Cadmus, as an eponimenic hero of the Cadmians living in Boeotian Thebes, and his sister Europe.

Cadmus and Europe

The Phoenician king Agenor ruled Tyre, the land of the Kanaans located in present-day Lebanon on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Agenor was married to Telefasa who gave birth to a girl who was named “Europe” and to four boys named “Cadmus”, “Fenik, “Finei” and “Kilik”. Agenor had a twin brother named “Bel” who ruled Egypt and who in turn had twin sons named “Danai” and “Egipt”. Danai colonized Argolida in the Peloponnesus.

Europe was a very beautiful princess and favoured by Zeus. When she grew up, she often played on the beach with her friends and picked flowers. One time she caught the attention of the god Zeus. Zeus, king of the gods, liked mortals and fell passionately in love with Europe. To make her like him, he changed into a white bull with a long, bearded chin and small horns, resembling jewelry. Between the horns he wore a stretched black belt and he smelled of roses and saffron. Europe, without fear, took to the beautiful animal. Because the bull showed to be as tame as a lamb, she began to play with him, placing floral wreaths on his horns. When she became comfortable with him she climbed on his back. The bull, with Europe on his back, then suddenly ran into the sea and was followed by other gods and by the Nereidi who sang wedding songs.

When Zeus reached the island of Crete, near Gortina, he turned into an eagle and raped Europe who then gave birth to three sons named “Minoi”, “Radamant” and “Sarpedon”. Europe later married the Cretan king Asteron who was of “Kars” or “Luvis” origin and who adopted her children. Minoi became a glorious and righteous king of Crete and began Phoenician colonization of the island.

When Agenor heard about the abduction of his darling daughter, he immediately sent his sons to find her and ordered them to not return home without her and thus began the colonization of the shores of the Mediterranean.

Fenik, Agenor’s son, became king of the Phoenicians in the western Mediterranean, while Kilik became king of Cilicia in Asia Minor, warring against the “Likici”. Finei became king of Thracian Salmid near the Marmora Sea. Cadmus and his mother Telefasa took to the sea with ships and a large army. On their way they colonized the islands Rhodes and Terra, stayed in Edonian in Thrace for a while where Telefasa died and was buried. Then Cadmus set off to colonize Tas, the Aegean island, where he opened gold mines. This was confirmed by Pausanias (Pauzania, Periigissis tis Ellados, V, 25 (prev. Guide Hellada), Logos, Split, 1989) who wrote about the inhabitants of Tas claiming that they were Phoenicians from Tyre and that the island was taken by the Phoenicians from time immemorial. Something similar was said by Herodotus (Herodotus, History, IV, 44, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988) when he wrote that: “There was a Herculean temple in Tas which the Phoenicians used when they were looking for Europe. Later they returned and founded the Tas colony. All this took place five generations before Hercules, the Amphitrionic son, was ever heard of in Hellada”. According to Eratostenovan chronology, Heracles was born in 1261 BC. After gaining control of Tas, the colonists traveled southwest and settled the island Eubei where they built the fortresses Chalcedon and Eritrea. After they landed in Aulida and crossed over into Boeotia, they arrived in Thebes from where they ruled. In mythology Cadmus addressed the Delphic oracle which told him not to look for his sister anymore, but to build a city at the first place he encountered a cow laying down. After the founding of Thebes, Cadmus had to kill the dragon, son of “Arei”, who protected the nearby water sources. After killing the dragon he planted its teeth into the ground and from the teeth sprang warriors who fought each other and from whom reportedly originated the most prominent families in Thebes.

After Cadmus built the Kadmeia fortress in 1313 BC, he married Harmonia, daughter of Aphrodite and Ares, who bore him five children, son “Polidor” and daughters “Semela”, “Inona”, “Agava” and “Avtonia”. Cadmus and Harmonia lived happily, but in their old age they were forced to leave the city, and on an oxen wagon, in the form of snakes, they were sent north at the request of the “Enheleicit” who had asked them to protect their country from the barbarians who threatened them. As an experienced warrior, Cadmus defeated the barbarians and became king of Enheleia. Harmonia gave birth here to a son named “Ilir” and when he grew up, after Cadmus’ death, he became king of the country Illyria, named after him.

After Cadmus left, rule of Thebes was passed on to his son Polidor who married Nikteida and had a son named “Labdak”. When Polidor approached his death, Labdak was too young to rule, so he left to be looked after by Nikteida’s family. The rule of Thebes he left to his brother Luc. When Labdak became of age he assumed rule of Thebes. Then when Labdak died, Luc became guardian of his son “Lai” and ruler of Thebes for twenty years. Lai, at one time, resided in Elida, Peloponnesus, with Pelops, until Luc’s death. Luk was killed by Amfion and Zet. After Luk’s death Lai assumed rule over Thebes and married “Jokasta”, who gave him a son named “Oedipus”. After many years of living in Delphi, one day Oedipus returned to Thebes and unknowingly killed his father Lai and due to his unfortunate ignorance he married his mother.

Jokasta was the daughter of Theban king Menekei and the sister of Kreont. Jokasta bore Oedipus four children, “Eteokle”, “Polyneices”, “Antigona” and “Ismena”. When she discovered that she had committed incest she hung herself from a high beam. According to another story however, she hung herself when she discovered that her sons Eteokle and Polyneices killed each other in a duel. Oedipus’s fate was also tragic. When it became clear to Oedipus why his wife had hung herself, in desperation, he pulled a needle out of her dress while he was cutting her down from the beam and stabbed his pupils out. Blind and helpless, stained with bloody tears, he asked the Thebans to expel him from the country as soon as possible. Aeschylus wrote about Oedipus’s fate in his tetralogy.

When Kreont, Jokasta’s brother, became king of Thebes his rule was neither peaceful nor happy because the city experienced many misfortunes.

First Thebes was threatened by a terrible fox. Amfitrion killed the terrible fox of the Peloponnesus when he came to visit Kreont for a different reason. This fox, which no one was able to catch, mercilessly ravaged the country. Every thirty days Thebans were required to give the fox one child. With help from Zeus, Amfitrion successfully resolved that issue. While living in Thebes Amfitrion married Alkmena who, with the help of Zeus, gave birth to the twins Hercules and Ifikles.

The Phoenician colonists of Boeotia were related to the Egyptian colonists of the Peloponnesus.

Amfitrion lived a quiet life in Thebes but died in a war that the Thebans led against the Minians of Orhomen. Hercules spent most of his youth in Thebes until Ergin, the king of Orhomen, imposed heavy taxes on Thebes and the Thebans revolted. At that time Hercules fought against the Minians, won the war and imposed double the tax on them. Kreont then signed a goodwill treaty and gave Hercules the hand of his older daughter Megara. Megara gave birth to eight sons. When the goddess Hera punished Hercules by making him mad, he personally killed his sons and Megara. Due to the gravity of his crime, Hercules was expelled from Thebes and went to see king Tespei in Boeotia to cleanse his sins.

Another misfortune that the Thebans experienced was the wrath of the dragon “Svinga”, sister of the “Nemei” lion. Svinga was a monster with a girl’s face, a lion’s body and with wings of a bird. To those Thebans who were unfortunate enough to meet her, she posed the following puzzle: “What being, with only a single voice, first walks on four then on two and finally on three and is smallest when it walks on four.” Because no one could accurately solve the puzzle Svingata almost daily ate at least one resident of Thebes. However, when Svinga ran into Oedipus who accurately solved the puzzle by saying “a human being” she became enraged and threw herself from a high cliff into the abyss of Lake Kefis where she was killed. A human being crawls on four as a baby, walks on two as a grown up and walks on two and carries a cane as an old person. Oedipus, as liberator of Thebes from Svinga, won the royal throne and the

royal hand of the beautiful Jokasta, who unbeknownst to both were mother and son.

The next mishap to befall Thebes was during the “Attack of Seven against Thebes”. This was a war between the Argives of Peloponnesus and the Thebans. Head of the Argive army was king Ardast, king of Argos and Biant’s grandson. Ardast was of Aeolian origin, originally of Pannonia. The campaign involved descendants of three royal families. The first collision with the Thebans took place at the Ismen River, a battle that was won by the Argives, after which they surrounded Thebes and continued with their attacks. After a while there were heavy casualties on both sides. In the end, of the seven Argive generals, only Adrast was saved.

Ten years later king Ardast, together with the sons of the heroes who died during the “Attack of Seven against Thebes” resumed his campaign against the Thebans. In mythology this war was known as the “Campaign of the Epogonci”. Many heroes were killed on both sides of this war including Ardast who was buried in Sikion and for whom a shrine was raised in his honour in Athens. The “Epigonci” won this war and razed Thebes to the ground. To avoid capture many Thebans fled with Laodamant, son of Etiokle, and went to Enheleia in Illyria, a country that was once ruled by Laodamant’s ancestor Cadmus. A smaller group of these refugees left Enheleia, went toward Thessaly and occupied Homola, a fertile and water rich Thessalian mountain.

Tersandar, Polyneices’s son, decided to remain in Thebes and rebuild it. To do so he called on the Theban refugees who had fled to Thessaly to return, which they did, and the door in the wall through which they returned was named “Homoloan Gate” (Homoloides Pile) in honour of Mount Homola their home in Thessaly. (Pauzania, Periigissis tis Ellados, IV, 8 (прев. Pasini: Vodič po Heladi), Logos, Split, 1989)

The name “Homola”, associated with the Homoloians, is also present in Serbia in a place called “Homoliska Gora”. There is also the name of the city Heronia and the toponym Heronia in Banat.

When new Indo-European peoples migrated into the region from the north, in the XI-XII century BC, the Phoenicians of Thebes fought bitter wars against them. One of those new groups to arrive in Greece was a nameless tribe later named “Dorians”, and after that named “Hellenes”. According to Thucydides (Thucydides Povijest Peloponeskog installment, p. I, 12, Dere, Belgrade, 1991) they arrived during the “sixtieth year after the capture of ‘Ilei’ (Troy)”, i.e. around 1120 BC. The Dorians were stopped in Fthiotida, north of Thermopylae. Deukalion was founder and leader of these nameless people. According to Herodotus (Herodotus, History, I, 56, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988) “…during king Deukalion’s time these people lived in Fthiotida and during Dor, son of Helen’s time, they lived in Histieotida, a region under Mount Osa and Mount Olympus. When the Cadmians expelled them from there they fled and settled in a region in Pindus in Macedonia. From there they went to Dropida and from Dropida to the Peloponnesus where they got the name Dorians”. While living in Pindus, the Dorians expelled the Tesproti of Thessaly. After living around Pindus for 25 years the yet to be named Dorians migrated south to Driopida between the mountains Parnassus and Helicon and settled there. The name of the region was changed from Driopida to Dorida, in honour of their leader “Dor”, son of Helen and grandson of Deukalion.

The movement of peoples indigenous to the Balkans and the Aegean Region, who then were called “sea peoples”, lasted between the IX and VIII century BC, during which time major changes took place. That period of history was referred to by historians as the “dark period of history”. The period from VIII to the middle of the VI century BC, during which the region experienced conditions of growth, was referred to as the “archaic period”, i.e. a new beginning.

The first known colonization of Asia Minor and beyond by Balkan people began before the Trojan War. The second colonization took place during the archaic period.

Further Phoenician colonization

According to Strabo, the Phoenicians of Halkidiki were the first colonists of Eubeia who, in “Kampania” on the west coast of Italy, founded the cities “Kim”, in 757 BC and “Region”, about 730-720 BC. This was the oldest colony in that region. There, the Phoenicians made contact with the neighbouring Latin “Etrurci” and passed on to them their culture, their Phoenician alphabet and their myths. A few years later, around 600 BC, they founded the city Naples, and in Sicily they founded the cities “Mesena”, “Katana” (730 BC) and “Naks”. The Latins called the new colonists “Graios” in accordance with their origin, the land of the “Greia” (Graias), today’s “Orop”, a boundary located between Boeotia and Attica, at the mouth of the river Asop. According to Papastavrou (Papastavrou, I.: Istoria tis Arhaias Ellados, p. 76, Hiotelli, Athinai, 1972) in the Western world this ethnonym influenced the Helens to call themselves “Graeci” and their country “Graecia” instead of Hellada.

As stated earlier, the Phoenicians of the north Aegean Sea colonized Tas Island when they first arrived. Then around 800-750 BC, the Phoenicians from Eritrea, Eubeia colonized the peninsula between the rivers Axius (Vardar) and Strymon and named it Halkidiki. According to Demosthenes (Demosthenes, Phil G., 26), that took place during the reign of king Philip of Macedonia. There were more than 32 Phoenician cities besides “Potidei”, which was founded by the Corinthians-Bakhaidites who were of Aeolian origin. Sometime later, the Phoenicians of Eubeia founded the cities “Meton” and “Pidi” on the west coast of the Thermaic Gulf.

During the Persian conquests in the Balkans and in Europe, Leonidas, king of Sparta and chieftain of the Hellenes, in the spring of 480 BC, while defending the Thermopylae crossing, took 400 Thebans as hostages. Commander of the Thebans was Leontiad. “When the Thebans, who were only held there by the Spartan king, along with 300 Spartans to fight and die, found out, they separated themselves from the Spartans, raised their arms skyward and fled among the barbarians. Speaking the truth they were among the first to approach the Persians and give the Persian king soil and water, and explain to him that they were held at Thermopylae by force and that they were not guilty for the losses the king had suffered”. (Herodotus, History, VII, 233, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988) Herodotus (Herodotus, History, VII, 34, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988) also said that after crossing through Thermopylae, the Persian army, under the command of Xerxis, invaded the Orhomen Region of Boeotia where the Minians lived. All the Beotoians defected to the Persians and their cities were occupied by Macedonians who were sent there by Alexander, son of king Amyntas, to protect them. They protected the cities to show Xerxis that the Macedonians were allies of the Boeotians. The Thebans, as allies of the Persians, were able to avoid disaster because on its way to Athens, Xerxis’s army burned everything, including Athens itself. But on the island of Salamis, the Persians suffered a catastrophic defeat.

After the naval disaster, Xerxis’s army headed for Boeotia to spend the winter in Thessaly, while their king Xerxis fled back to Persia. Ten months later, in the spring of 479 BC, the Persian army, under Mardonei’s command, again took the barren Athens with the main battle taking place at Platea. On the Greeks side there were about 30,000 troops, while on the Persian side there were 50,000 warriors reinforced by Thessalian and Boeotian cavalry. Thebes served as the Persian base. After being defeated a second time and with Mardonei being killed, the Persians fled to their camp in Thebes. The Boeotian Minians and the Theban Phoenicians showed great heroism during the battle. Three hundred of their most brave and elite fighters died in this battle against the Athenians. When they too were defeated they fled to Thebes, but not with the Persians. They fled by giving the Persians cover. (Herodotus, History, IX, 34, Matica Srpska, Belgrade, 1988) The Boeotian cavalry in its entire composition protected the retreating Persians who fled immediately after making contact with the enemy. While defending their friends who were fleeing, the cavalry killed 600 Greeks.

After the Greeks had buried their dead in Platea, they followed the Theban army and asked them to surrender the remaining Persians because they had reached an agreement to refrain from hostile acts against the Thebans and the remaining Boeotians. Athens recovered quickly from the ordeal and experienced rapid progress in all areas, so there was great antagonism between Athens, as a city of Aeolian descendants, and Sparta, as a city of Hellenes. This antagonism was manifested 50 years later in a long war that lasted about 30 years. The war, known as the Peloponnesian war, started in the spring of 431 BC.

After the Persian Wars, there was a transformation in ancient Aegean society as various groups of people struggled for hegemony. While following their different interests many antagonisms broke out and alliances formed in various wars that lasted 24 years. Three national heterogeneous states with variable fortunes rose to the occasion; these were Athens, Sparta and Thebes. Athenian hegemony was replaced by Spartan and then by Theban. Hellenic Sparta reached its zenith of power after its war with Athens in 382 BC. In 374 BC, Sparta convened an Assembly during which “general peace between the cities” was promoted. Unfortunately the peace lasted only a few years with Thebes being accused of breaching it. As a consequence the Spartans, headed by the Peloponnesian League, attacked the Boeotians with their Spartan army. A battle was fought at Leuktra in Boeotia in 371 BC. The Boeotian army of 7,000, led by Epamimond came out victorious. Epamimond achieved his victory by introducing a new warfare tactic, he used a phalanx which later was adopted and modified by Philip II and by Alexander the Great and their Macedonian descendants.

The victory in Leuktra near Thessaly marked an important page in Greek history. Sparta’s hegemony ended. The cities in the island Eubeia, which were captured by the Athenians, joined the Boeotian alliance. Epaminond took his army to the Peloponnesus to settle mutual problems with those cities where “Messenean” and “Arcadian” cities were built. This helped the Thebans become powerful and gain hegemony over all the other City States.

In the prevailing circumstances, Athens and Sparta appealed to the Persian king for help. Thebes did the same, which led to the convening of the Assembly in Susa in 367 BC, where, with the “King’s peace”, Thebes succeeded in gaining hegemony over the City States. The Thebans became power brokers in political problems in Thessaly and in Macedonia where, due to certain circumstances, it led to hostage taking, among whom was Philip II, later king of Macedonia. Upset with the Thebans, the Athenians appealed to the Persians who helped them conquer space and establish many cities on the southern coast of Aegean Macedonia and Thrace. The Athenians also interfered in Macedonian affairs and caused problems for the Macedonian dynasties. This unfortunately also invited Thebes to deal with problems in Macedonia. These antagonisms between the City States led to the creation of various alliances and wars between City States under the motto “divide and conquer” (divide et impera). During a battle in Mantineia in Arcadia, in 362 BC, Epaminond lost his life which also led to the end of Theban hegemony. Epaminond was considered one of the most important characters in the classical era.

During those turbulent times, the Thebans used their opportunity to raze the Minian Orhomen to get rid of their enemy who constantly interfered in the Boeotian alliance. A similar fate was also experienced by the Phoenicians of Thebes themselves when the Athenians persuaded them to rise against the Macedonians who were involved in a military campaign in Cadmea. But when negotiations failed, the Thebans declared war against Alexander, who after some heavy fighting, in October 335 BC, captured Thebes. Alexander then let loose her old enemies the Fokeians, Plateians and Orhomenians who, because of their great hatred, took revenge and destroyed Thebes.

So, after nearly a thousand years of glorious rule by the Minian kings from Manichevo to Timok and Cadmus from Phoenicia, who contributed to the development of culture, social relations, trade, religion and other spiritual and material achievements, not only on the territory of the City States but beyond, all came to an end when it was settled once and for all by the kings of Macedonia, Philip II and his son Alexander the Great.